Home Office

Raytheon

Mr David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what legal costs have been incurred by her Department for costs associated with the recent Raytheon e-borders arbitration tribunal.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office incurred £23.3m (not including internal and witness costs) in the period April 2010 to March 2014 on legal costs associated with preparing and presenting its case in respect of the Raytheon arbitration. This amount includes costs incurred with lawyers, counsel and experts.

Asylum: Iraq

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government has refused asylum to any Iraqis who have fled from persecution by the Islamic State in Iraq.

James Brokenshire: It is not possible to provide information on the number of Iraqi nationals who have raised a claim for asylum on the basis that they are at risk from persecution of the Islamic State in Iraq and who have been refused asylum.The basis of an individual's claim for asylum is not information that the Home Office centrally records.Whilst it is not possible to provide the information requested, information on the total number of asylum applications made by Iraqi nationals and the outcome of initial decisions on their claims over the last ten years can be found in asylum data tables immigration statistics January to March 2014 volume 1, tab as_01 which can be accessed at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tables-for-immigration-statistics-january-to-march-2014/

Asylum: Syria

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Syrian refugees have been granted asylum in the UK since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011; and if she will make a statement.

James Brokenshire: Between April 2011 and June 2014, 2,959 Syrians and their dependants were granted asylum in the UK at initial decision. In the same period, 74 Syrians and their dependants were granted Humanitarian Protection/ Discretionary Leave and Other grants (grants under family and private life rules). In addition, 50 Syrian nationals have beengranted Humanitarian Protection under the Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme since it began in April 2014.The Home Office publishes statistics on grants of asylum, humanitarian protection/discretionary leave/other grants at initial decision to main applicants and dependants in Tables as_02 and as_02_q (Asylum data tables Volume 1 and Volume 2) within the Immigration Statistics release. Table as.19 (Asylum data table Volume 4) shows refugees (and others) resettled in the UK under different schemes.A copy of the latest release, Immigration Statistics April – June 2014 is available from https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release and is available from the Library of the House.Refugee status is conferred following a grant of asylum. Not all asylum seekers are deemed to be refugees and not all refugees claim asylum.

Islamic State

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking with regards to supporters of Islamic State in the UK; and if she will make a statement.

James Brokenshire: As the Prime Minister made clear in his statement on 1 September, Official Report, Column 23, the Government has ‘taken a wide range of measures, including stopping suspects from travelling to the region by seizing passports, barring foreign nationals from re-entering the United Kingdom, legislating so that we can prosecute people for terrorist activity, even where that activity takes place overseas, and bringing forward emergency legislation, for instance to safeguard our use of communications data.’He also announced that the Government will bring forward legislation to strengthen powers in specific areas, including disrupting suspects from travelling and dealing decisively with those already here who pose a risk. Details of that legislation will be brought forward at the earliest opportunity.A wide range of offences already exists on the statute books, including in the Terrorism Acts 2000 and 2006, under which individuals can be prosecuted if there is evidence they have committed terrorism offences by supporting ISIL. In particular, where there is evidence that individuals are planning, promoting, funding, facilitating or participating in terrorist activities the police and Crown Prosecution Service will seek to prosecute them. Each case is considered individually. If the police refer a case to the Crown Prosecution Service, they consider whether there is sufficient evidence of any offence, and if so, whether it is in the public interest to prosecute.

Entry Clearances: China

Mr Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much a UK tourist visa costs a Chinese national.

James Brokenshire: The cost of visas for the UK are published annually in April in a document called Home Office Immigration and Nationality fees. Currently, visit visas for the UK cost £83 for a visit visa valid for 6 months, £300 for a visit visa valid for 2 years, £544 for a visit visa valid for 5 years, and £737 for a visit visa valid for 10 years, irrespective of nationality.

Immigrants: Detainees

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the maximum time spent in a detention centre for the purpose of immigration control by (a) women and (b) men in each category of detainee was in each of the last five years.

James Brokenshire: Published figures on people detained in the United Kingdom solely under Immigration Act powers include those held in short term holding facilities, pre departure accommodation and immigration removal centres. Figures exclude those held in police cells, Prison Service establishments, short term holding rooms at ports and airports (for less than 24 hours), and those recorded as detained under both criminal and immigration powers and their dependants. The period of detention starts when a person first enters the Home Office detention estate. If the person is then moved from a removal centre to a police cell or Prison Service establishment, this period of stay will be included if the detention is solely under Immigration Act powers. The table below shows the longest length of detention (in days) as at the last day of each year, by gender, for people in detention, for the last five years.Longest length of detention, by sex, in days  FemaleMaleas at the last day of 20098521,520as at the last day of 20101,0931,885as at the last day of 20117512,250as at the last day of 20121,1171,620as at the last day of 20136491,428The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of people detained in the United Kingdom for immigration purposes, within Immigration Statistics: April – June 2014, from the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release.

Domestic Violence

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many requests under the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme by (a) women and (b) men have (i) been made and (ii) been successful in each police force since the introduction of that scheme.

Norman Baker: The Home Office does not hold the information requested. Individual police forces are responsible for collecting information relating to the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme.As part of its commitment to take forward the recommendations arising from the report published in March 2014 by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary "Everyone’s business: Improving the police response to domestic abuse", the Home Office is taking forward proposals to develop national data standards that enable consistent and comparable data on domestic abuse to be collected by the police and submitted as part of the Annual Data Return from April 2015. We also plan to evaluate by the end of the financial year how roll-out of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme has been implemented, and we will be working with the police to collect data on the number of national disclosures to support this evaluation. In addition, the police are incorporating the Scheme into their action plans setting out how they are taking steps to improve their approach to domestic abuse.

Borders: Personal Records

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which Minister in her Department took the decision to terminate the contract with Raytheon to build an immigration computer system; and if she will make a statement.

James Brokenshire: The Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) made the decision to terminate the contract with Raytheon, which was negotiated and signed by the last Government. I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Mr Green) on 22 July 2010, Official Report, columns 44-45WS, regarding the termination of the e-Borders contract.

Terrorism

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will commission an assessment of the effect on civil liberties of current statutory definitions of terrorism and the proportionality and necessity of the range of those definitions.

James Brokenshire: The UK definition of terrorism is contained in section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Safeguards are built in to our legislation. The police and the Crown Prosecution Service are required to ensure that prosecutions are only pursued in appropriate cases, where there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to do so. David Anderson QC, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, has made four specific recommendations in respect of the definition in his most recent Annual Report on the Operation of the Terrorism Acts in 2013, which was laid in Parliament on 22nd July. We are currently considering these in detail and will respond in due course.

Entry Clearances: Russia

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many investor visas have been granted by the UK Government to Russian citizens since May 2010; how many of those visas were issued after January 2014; and if she will make a statement.

James Brokenshire: The information available relates to Tier 1 Investor visas granted to main applicants. In the period April 2010 to June 2014 there were 501 visas granted to Russian nationals, of which 119 visas were granted in the period January to June 2014.The Home Office publishes quarterly statistics on entry clearance visas granted outside the UK, by category and nationality, in table vi_06_q_w (Entry Clearance Visas volume 2) within the ‘Immigration Statistics’ release.A copy of the latest release, ‘Immigration Statistics April - June 2014’ is available from the Library of the House and from https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release

Administrative Scheme for the "On the Runs" Independent Review

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representation her Department will have on the On-The-Runs Oversight Board established after the publication of the Hallett Report on 17 July 2014; and if she will make a statement.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office will be represented at the On-The-Runs Oversight Board.

Department for Education

Teachers: Recruitment

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many fully qualified teachers who have completed their studies within the last three years in England have not obtained a permanent teaching post.

Mr David Laws: In the academic year 2011/12, there were 1,520 people who had received Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and were still seeking a teaching post within six months of completing their training. Data for the academic year 2012/13 will be published on 23 October. The table attached gives a breakdown of the total number of trainee teachers who have been awarded QTS and have reported to be seeking a teaching post, and those that were in employment within six months of completion of training. Further information is published online at:www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-performance-profiles-2013-management-data



Trainee teachers employment - 2009/10 to 2011/12
(Excel SpreadSheet, 14.25 KB)

Ministry of Justice

Terrorism: Reoffenders

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners convicted of terrorist-related offences have re-offended since being released in each of the last 10 years; and what the offence type was of each such re-conviction.

Andrew Selous: Data is held centrally on re-offending by offenders sentenced for terrorist-related offences only since 2008. To obtain data on re-offending by such offenders prior to 2008 would require a manual trawl of individual offender records, which could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The table below provides the figures since 2008 for those who have committed further offences following release from custody whilst subject to statutory supervision on licence. YearNumberOffence type20080 20090 20100 20110 20122Non-terrorist related –deception; and fraud20132Non-terrorist related - providing false information; and possession of a false instrument. In 2012 one offender who had completed a sentence for a terrorist offence in 2010 was convicted of a further terrorist offence. We are changing the law so that the maximum sentence for three terrorist offences - weapons training for terrorist purposes, other training for terrorism and making or possession of explosives - will be increased to a life sentence. Terrorists convicted of these offences on a second occasion may also face the ‘two strikes’ automatic life sentence. This will mean, in turn, that more terrorists may be subject to licence conditions and recall to prison for the rest of their lives. We are also legislating so that no criminals convicted of serious terrorism offences will be automatically released at the half-way point of their prison sentence. Under these proposals, we are creating a new form of custodial sentence for offenders convicted of a range of terrorism offences, including possession of an article for terrorist purposes, inciting terrorism overseas and preparation of terrorist acts, under which they will only be released before the end of their custodial term under strict conditions at the discretion of the independent Parole Board. Before the Parole Board releases any criminal they must be convinced they no longer pose a threat to society.

Prisoners' Release

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners were released on temporary licence from each category of prison in the latest period for which figures are available.

Andrew Selous: Temporary release can be a valuable tool in the resettlement of prisoners in the community but it must never take place at the expense of public safety. We conducted a fundamental review of the policy and practice of release on temporary licence (ROTL) after serious failures last year. We are introducing a system that enhances the assessment of serious offenders and restricts access to ROTL to cases where there is a clear, legitimate reason for the release. We have already introduced some of these changes and have additionally introduced a restriction on prisoners transferring to open conditions and having ROTL if they have previously absconded from open prisons; or if they have failed to return or reoffended whilst released on temporary licence.The table below shows the number of distinct, individual prisoners released on temporary licence from each category of prison in 2013. It is important to be aware that there is some double counting here, ie where a prisoner has transferred between prisons during the year and had ROTL from more than one category of prison. In fact a total of 11, 211 individuals were temporarily released at some point in 2013.Table 1: Number of prisoners(1) released on temporary licence by prison category(2), 2013  Prison categoryNumber of prisoners   Category A0   Category B1*   Category C2,604   Category D7,177Other prisons(3)1,914All prisons11,696   *this was a category D prisoner, ie suitable for open conditions. (1) Where a prisoner has been transferred to a different category of prison during the calendar year, they have been counted once under both categories. (2) Prisons have been categorised by their predominant function as at January 2014. Some prisons will have a dual function, but will only be counted under their predominant one. For example, some category A prisons also have a local function - these prisons are counted under the "category A" heading.(3) Other prisons includes those prisons with a predominant function of YOI, Female prison, Local prison or NOMS IRC.

Reoffenders

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the reoffending rate was of all offenders in each police force area in England and Wales in each of the last five years.

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the reoffending rate was for sex offenders in England and Wales by police force area in each of the last five years.

Andrew Selous: Public protection is at the heart of our Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. The new National Probation Service is responsible for the direct management of those offenders who pose the highest risk of serious harm to the public and who have committed the most serious offences. Offenders who are deemed to pose a medium and low risk are being managed by a Community Rehabilitation Company. Every offender will be risk assessed prior to allocation to any probation provider and also upon leaving prison; this will be reviewed when there are indicators that their risk of serious harm to the public has increased to high.  These questions have been answered using the Ministry of Justice’s published proven re-offending statistics for England and Wales, broken down further by police force area. These statistics are published on a quarterly basis and the latest bulletin on a calendar year basis was published on 31 October 2013. Please note that 2011 is the latest full calendar year for which data are available.  Table 1 presents the one year proven re-offending rates for all adult and juvenile offenders in England and Wales, by police force area, for each year from 2007 to 2011.  Table 2 presents the one year proven re-offending rates for all adult and juvenile offenders cautioned or convicted of sexual offences in England and Wales, by police force area, for each year from 2007 to 2011. A proven re-offence is defined as any offence committed in a one year follow-up period and receiving a court conviction, caution, reprimand or warning in the one year follow-up. Following this one year period, a further six month waiting period is allowed for cases to progress through the courts.  A large part of the variability in the re-offending rates presented in Tables 1 and 2 reflects the mix of offenders within each Police Force Area and, therefore, comparisons between Police Force Areas should not be made using these raw re-offending rates. A copy of these tables has been placed in the Library.



Tables: Re-offending rates by police force area
(Excel SpreadSheet, 50 KB)